My trip to Kiruna: (March 16 - March 21, 2004)

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This week I went to Kiruna, a city in the North of Sweden, above the arctic circle. It total we were with 12 people: Ana (Spain), Andreas (Germany), Anne (Germany), Bastien (France), Emily (Taiwan), Karo (Germany), Katrin (Germany), Michael (Germany), Miriam (Germany), Nuria (Spain), Sarah (Germany), and me (the Netherlands). It was a fun group, we all had a great time!

We took the train from Göteborg.
The trip would take more than 20 hours.
There was also a cinema and restaurant on board of the train.
		Quite a trip!
How do you sleep in a train like this...?
When we woke up in the morning the weather was really nice, and there was a lot of snow around us. And snow, snow, trees, snow, trees, snow, and snow.
We had a couple of hours of delay, but got free food and drinks because of this.		Some movies: Ana explaining the problem. (6 MB) Miriam feeding her (baby?) sister. (5 MB)
		We had to transfer in Boden. Luckily the train waited for us (with our three hours of delay).
And there we are!
What you see here, were basically the most exiting things in Kiruna itself. ;)
We played some cards. The Germans' favorite game was 'Assloch', probably because this was a (the only?) game in which they could always beat me... :(		After three hours I was finally able to be the first to pick up some cards. :) By the way, this didn't mean I won the game (I didn't). :S
		And then to sleep...
		The youth hostel.
Henrik Taube picked us up with his van and we went to the dog sleds.
Preparing the dogs and the sled.
And off we were...
		Some movies: The dogs in their cages. (6 MB) On the dog sled #1 (3 MB) On the dog sled #2 (3 MB) On the dog sled #3 (2 MB) On the dog sled #4 (4 MB)
With the dog sleds over the frozen river.
		We had to attach the dogs to a big line and then they got some food. After this we went to the cabins where we were going to spend the next days and night.
		There was no electricity and we had to chop our own wood for the fire places and the sauna.
		Should be enough for one night...
Mmm, very nice reindeer penis...
After lunch we went ice fishing.
We had to drill a hole in the ice, which can be over one meter thick at some places.		Movie: Drilling a hole in the ice (4 MB)
		We also had to get fresh water from the river.
		Keep the fire burning!
		We had to bake our own meat on the open fire.
		And this is the end result:
And these are supposed to be Northern Lights.		Although we are not quite sure about it... :S
		The next day we went walking, taking photos, skiiing, some fishing, riding a snow scooter, and other fun things.
Click on the picture below for the end result. :D
		Above you can see the inside of the sauna.
		Above the Lappish hut in which (eight of us) we stayed. The others stayed in the other cabin.
		And then back again...
Then we spend the evening and the night again in the youth hostel.		The next day we went, with Sven-Ivan, to the big ironore mine in Kiruna.
He told us about the history of the town and the mine (which are quite related).
He took us into the mine and showed us some equipment.
		He explained how the mining took and takes place. In a small part of the mine he is cultivating shii-take mushrooms.
He gave us some of these mushrooms, and we made a nice soup of this in the evening.
We went to the church in Kiruna. It is totally made of wood and was elected the most beautiful building of Sweden in 2001.
		Then we went to another small church, the oldest that is made of wood. And this is one of the first buildings built in Kiruna.
		And then: the ICE HOTEL! very cool ;) and quite impressive.
Above you can see the bar of the ice hotel in which they serve your drink in a glass of ice!
These are some photos of the four people from Stockholm (Anne, Bastien, Katrin, Nuria). (They also went to the ice hotel.)		On the last day we didn't stay together because they were going to another place and they took a different train back.
And then we went back to Göteborg by train. This train (also after transferring in Boden) was slightly better than the train on the way to Kiruna. It was relatively comfortable to sleep a little bit. Furthermore, we played some cards and we talked some. I told some stories, which were partly real and partly fantasy. ;) Mostly real of course, hehe. Maybe I'll publish the stories some day....
In Boden we bought a pizza that we ate in the train.		I helped Karo to write a card in Dutch. :)
		Is that Roodkapje sleeping there...? :P
AND SO IT IS... ...or was!

P.S. Most of these photos were taken by the other people of the group than me and with their cameras.